Picture of Olaf Binders NSU-OSL with lots of handmade stuff, like the Girder, rigid rear and the normal things you have to fabricade when not building a Harley or Triumph. I shot this during my
CUSTOM & CLASSIC FEST in South West Germany.http://www.nsu-konsul.de/impressumkontakt.htm

Here some words about my bike and me off the British magazine BritChopper......he made his own »wide glide« 5° raked triple trees, out of high strength aluminium. Then put BMW /7 tubes with 4 inch over »Krauser Touring« stanchions in there. With a file, sanding paper and a buffing wheel in his drill press, he grinded and polished the rough cast aluminum surface of the lover legs. Front brake drum/hub is a combination of a NSU-Prinz car brake-drum and one half of a Yamaha XS 650 front hub, turned to size, press fitted, fixed by inside welding and laced with a 21” Rim. The donator of the rear brake was the same XS Yammy but laced with a 16 inch Rim. Found a TÜV inspector to make the approvals and write every modification in the German counterpart of what Americans call a motorcycle “Title” was not easy. When modifying a vehicle in that part of the Wold usually it’s not allowed to use non-TÜV-approved parts. After checking the completed bike at a TÜV-station, every part has to be registered at the bureau of transportation, so every cop can check out what’s legal or not. Fortunately he found an inspector who had a foible for old bikes and homemade chopper stuff. Our NSU lover then started fabricating NSU Konsul replica parts in his spare time and also ran for some time (in addition to his day- and nightshift job as a CNC machinist) a dealership for original old stuff and new NSU replica parts. Three years later, when realizing the lack of time for riding his motorcycles, he closed the small business. That time a new breed of »low rider« custom bikes flooded the old Continent: Extremely flat styled bikes, long built but not with the traditional high handlebars and long front ends of the average chopper. Even the NSU had to follow the new rules. With just 8000 miles on the clock, the guy cut his choppers rear frame off and modified it to swing arm suspension. Improving a motorcycle frame was rather allowed than doing an act of drawing back and makes a bike rigid. A self made box section swing arm added 10 inches more in length. Short shocks for the rear end were found on a swap meet. Now the Guy lowered the front end to stock length BMW tubes and changed the engine to that NSU Konsul-Harley Shovelhead bastard motor you can see in these pictures. That means at first to modify the flywheels of a left over 350 cc Konsul engine bottom end for a longer stroke. Than turning the cylinder fins on a lathe out of a chunk of aluminum and press in a liner which was made of cast iron. Finally he opened the crankcase on a milling machine and relocated the studs to accept the much larger new cylinder and the Shovelhead piston. You are astonished about different intake and exhaust in comparison to an original Shovel head? Some work on the milling machine and on the lathe, some welding, smoothening with a file and sanding paper and a final glass beading made the front V-Twin head fit that single cylinder motor. He also was in need for a position to adjust the pushrod tubes. So he opened the right side motor case cover on the milling machine and made the new door were you can see that hand engraved deep carved NSU lettering. On the left side the original alloy primary case, with two internal chain drives (one to the clutch and a second chain to the generator), went into the spare parts box. Hand made belt drives and covers replaced the chain set up. For the rear wheel drive he still used a chain in these days. All was done during two winters and a summer with the help of a friend who is a mechanical engineer by trade. In 1989 the NSU-Chopper was featured in the German Vintage Car and Bike magazine Oldtimer MARKT. Ha! After that story some readers called the owner of the chopped NSU »Frankenstein«, but nevertheless, he rumbled into so many guys living the same spirit and many of them invited him to parties and bike shows. That was the birth of the legendary Honky Tonk Mob. The much too long rear wheel chain on the chopper had slowly damaged the tin chain guard and had to be replaced by a belt drive too. Therefore he used a modified rear pulley from a Harley and added a longer HTD-Continental belt from industrial resources. Those low cost belts are available in much more different lengths than a Harley dealer can ever offer and they were strong enough for that NSU project.Then he made the small pulley for the gearbox by grinding the teeth of the original sprocket. Next he drilled it for connecting it with bolts to a precisely machined out and press fitted industrial 14 mm HTD pulley. It turned out that the ratio was to close. Heavy vibrations did not allow him to ride faster than 70 mph, but that’s even more than most of the stock Konsuls were running. At the end of the eighties, Harleys were very common in Continental-Europe too. Many dealers shipped worn out Flatheads, Knuckles, Pans and Shovelhead to the old world. Our NSU chopper owner had saved enough money to buy his first complete Harley. He left his half done UL Flathead basked case, he had worked on, unfinished in the backyard shed and bought a 1972 Shovelhead for himself. From 1984 to 1991, he organized some NSU and also annual Custombike meetings and parties in his home town St.Leon-Rot/Germany (close to the city of Heidelberg). Than he switched to organize five Custom & Classic bike shows until 1996. During the very first bike show he had organized, an editor of the German hardcore clubs magazine BIKERS NEWS made a bike feature of the NSU and invited him to work as a co editor on a new custombike magazine project. So the NSU Chopper guy started to write for magazines...

one of these was on the History Channel show Pawn Stars. they bought it for $4300, and sold it at an auction for $7k. it was mostly there, but did not run. their resto guy estimated $15-$20k to restore it.

Norton 500cc Model 18 c. 1928, certainly is a nice bike with potential. Unfortunatley the owner wasn't interested in my offer of a kidney donation to person of his choice, you just can't barter with some people.

Looks like he's also got it on ebay for 11,000 GBP ($16K!) but it sure is a cool bike. Check out the horizontal braces that tie the axle plates to the seatpost. I wonder how well that would work on a rigid Triumph?